[Footnote 104: I have been reminded that great
tenderness is due to the “sancta simplicitas”
of the “anicula Christiana,” whose religion
is generally of this type. I should agree, if
the “anicula” were not always so ready
with her faggot when a John Huss is to be burnt.]

[Footnote 105: 1 Cor. xiv. 37.]

[Footnote 106: There seem to have been two conceptions
of the operations of the Spirit in St. Paul’s
time: (a) He comes fitfully, with visible signs,
and puts men beside themselves; (b) He is an abiding
presence, enlightening, guiding, and strengthening.
St. Paul lays weight on the latter view, without repudiating
the former. See H. Gunkel, Die Wirkungen des
H. Geistes nach der popul. Anschauung d. apostol.
Zeit und d. Lehre der Paulus.]

CHRISTIAN PLATONISM AND SPECULATIVE MYSTICISM

“That was the true Light, which lighteth every
man coming into the world.”—­JOHN
i. 9.

“He made darkness His hiding place, His pavilion
round about Him; darkness of waters, thick clouds
of the skies.”—­Ps. xviii. 11.

I have called this Lecture “Christian Platonism
and Speculative Mysticism.” Admirers of
Plato are likely to protest that Plato himself can
hardly be called a mystic, and that in any case there
is very little resemblance between the philosophy
of his dialogues and the semi-Oriental Mysticism of
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. I do not dispute
either of these statements; and yet I wish to keep
the name of Plato in the title of this Lecture.
The affinity between Christianity and Platonism was
very strongly felt throughout the period which we
are now to consider. Justin Martyr claims Plato
(with Heraclitus[107] and Socrates) as a Christian
before Christ; Athenagoras calls him the best of the
forerunners of Christianity, and Clement regards the
Gospel as perfected Platonism.[108] The Pagans repeated